About cleverknits

Cleverknits is a collaboration between Helena and Andrea, good friends, good knitters, and good people. We met in the sixth grade when Helena cut over 18 inches from her hair, and subsequently Andrea remarked upon the drastic nature of the cut. Since that day, we have been very best friends. In high school, people often assumed we were sisters (though that may have had something to do with the fact that Helena called Andrea's dad "Dad" and Andrea called Helena's mom "Mom"). Interestingly, we learned to knit completely independently of one another at the exact same time. At the time, we were living in different cities, and neither of us had any knowledge that the other was picking up this wonderful hobby until months later. Needless to say, this only strengthened the bond of our friendship.

Helena: I'm a self-taught knitter, which means I probably do everything the wrong way. Oh how I wish that 'wrong way' included knitting continental style, but I'm not quite there yet. My mother taught me to crochet when I was five or six years old, but in grad school I got this idea in my head that knitting was a far superior craft (at the time I was living with my mother, so that may have been a form of rebellion on my part). One night when I should have been writing a final paper, I stayed up all night figuring out garter stitch and finishing my very first knitted creations. The bad news is: I never actually finished graduate school (I am, as they say ABT, short for "all but thesis" -- I finished all the coursework, but I never actually wrote my thesis). I generally tell people that the not finishing grad school is because I was working full time and so work got in the way, but the real reason I never finished is because I became obsessed with knitting and would rather knit than write a thesis any day of the week. Knitting stuck, graduate school did not, and now I am a fanatic knitter without a master's degree.

Andrea: I learned to knit from my mother-in-law. I had just gotten married and was playing housewife for a few months. It didn't take too long for me to be bored out of my mind and learning to knit became my escape. I knit four scarves that first Christmas, then put my needles down. On a trip to San Anselmo, I wandered into a bookstore and found myself in the knitting section surrounded by pattern book with vision of sweater in my head. A quick trip to Joann's and I was hooked. Again. I haven't put the needles down since.

Our goal with this site is to share our knitting and what we've learned with the rest of the knitting community. We hope to build a mini-community here on this site, and encourage you all to comment, participate, share, befriend, and enjoy!